Moscow has agreed to establish factories in Venezuela for the production of Kalashnikov assault rifles. The move continues Moscow’s recent trend of arming antagonists of the United States.

This is the first time any country outside of Russia has been granted a production license for the famous rifles since the Soviet Union broke apart.

The Izhevsk Mechanical Plant (imp) will start building two factories in October, one to manufacture the guns and a second to produce ammunition. Plans are also in the works to supply other small arms, such as the Dragunov sniper rifle.

Vladimir Gorodetsky, the general director for the imp, said the “goal is to re-equip the Venezuelan army with modern types of small arms, grenade launchers, and sniper rifles.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has consistently maintained that his arms build-up is to protect against U.S. invasion. He has spent more than $3 billion on Russian weapons since 2005, including 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 24 Sukhoi fighter jets and 35 M-17 helicopters. Caracas is also in negotiations to purchase up to nine submarines, which naval analyst Norman Friedman has called “the only weapon Chavez has which can physically hurt Americans.”

President Chavez has put his hatred of the Bush administration out in the open, complaining about the “imperialist, genocidal, fascist attitude of the U.S. president” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

The real story here is that Russia is deliberately arming U.S. enemies like Iran and Venezuela, threatening military response to the planned U.S. missile shield by aiming weapons at Europe, and making a concerted effort to control as much of the world’s resources as possible. So while the U.S. supports Chile and Colombia, Russia arms Venezuela. As the U.S. provides support to Saudi Arabia, Russia sends weapons to Iran. As the U.S. works to oppose and isolate Hamas, Moscow holds talks with its leaders, treating terrorists as legitimately elected officials.

Instead of working with the U.S. to isolate hostile governments, Moscow is helping to prop them up, undermining the U.S. and reinforcing its own status as a rising superpower. To better understand where these moves will take Russia in the near future, read Russia and China in Prophecy.